1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable storage medium, such as a season ticket used in a transport system, an IC card for identification, or a prepaid card. The present invention also relates to a portable storage medium processing apparatus for processing the portable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, systems using various types of cards have been put into practice. For example, cash cards for both prepaid and post-paid schemes are available. Prepaid cards include telephone cards, "orange cards" in a passenger railroad system, amusement arcade cards, amusement park cards, bus cards, and the like. Post-paid cards include various types of credit cards. As described above, systems using cards are widely applied to various fields, e.g., transport systems, delivery systems, and amusement facilities. In addition, systems using cards, such as identification cards, which are not associated with cash processing, e.g., entrance/exit management systems, are widely employed.
An unattended system has recently been developed, in which, as in a stored fare wicket system in a transport system, when a user inserts a prepaid card in an automatic wicket apparatus, the fare for vehicle use section is automatically paid. It is expected that such systems will increase in number in the future. These systems are connected to users through cards, and are operated on the assumption that proper cards matching the systems are used.
As systems using various types of cards are in operation, it is not rare for one person to have a plurality of cards. In order to select a proper card matching a system to be used from a plurality of cards, visual information displayed on the surface of each card is generally read and recognized visually. However, it is difficult for a visually handicapped user to select a proper card by reading visual information display on the surface of each card. As mechanical systems based the use of cards are applied to a variety of fields, it is important to allow visually handicapped users to easily select proper cards matching systems.
As characters which can be read by visually handicapped people, braille constituted by holes formed in various arrangements is known. As a system for performing an electrophotographic printing operation, a stereoscopic copy system has been proposed (see, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Nos. 54-89638 and 56-92544). This system is designed to form three-dimensional images on the surface of a paper sheet by using a combination of a technique of thermally expansive microcapsules and an electrophotographic recording technique. In the system, a toner image formed by an electrophotographic process is transferred onto a thermally foamed layer constituted by thermally expansive microcapsules and a thermoplastic binder and formed on a base sheet. The surface of the layer is then irradiated by a halogen lamp. As the toner absorbs light and generates heat, only the portions on which the toner image is transferred are heated, thus selectively causing thermally expansive microcapsules to protrude to form projections on the surface of the layer.
In spite of the fact that mechanical systems based on the use of cards have been widely employed, there is not a card which allows a handicapped user to easily select in accordance with a system to be used, nor is there a prepaid card which allows a visually handicapped user to know the balance (used state).